How did we do the pilot?
This pilot project started in March 2022. But the initiative goes back to Vice-Rector Vít Procházka and Eva Janebová meeting at SOKOL with Dave Stepan, Marit Kucera and SOKOL friends in December 2021 and brainstorming how Palacký University can support Czech expats in Minnesota. Eva Janebová and Jitka Sebek recognized an opportunity to help teenagers from expat families who dropped off attending Sokol Czech lessons find a way to Czech language thanks to Czech students of Faculty of Education. Eva engaged her Institute for Excellence in Internationalization (IEI) colleagues who know how to teach Czech and Jitka Sebek at SOKOL spread the word to Czech families. Lenka Nosková and Jana Odevzdaná at IEI mentor a group of 5 Palacký students who volunteer to design and teach Czech to two groups of teenagers in Minnesota – 5 youngsters aged 6 to 11 years old, meeting on Sunday morning, and 3 teenagers, attending middle or high school who were meeting on Saturday morning over the course of spring semester 2022. Thanks to the auspices of Vice-Rector Vít Procházka and his Volunteer Centre at UP, student instructors received credits and recognition for their volunteer work.
How our sessions looked like?
The meetings were 60 minutes long and tailored around interests and preferences, as well as about specific needs in learning Czech. Thanks to very friendly atmosphere and open discussion about what we want to learn together, Palacký students prepared lessons on topics relevant for the learners and with activities they needed and appreciated. We focused on speaking and reading, writing, even giving through regular homework. American high-schoolers prepared riddles and activities also for Palacký students (in Czech, of course) so Palacký students got to learn about Twin Cities and American culture quite a bit.
Where did we meet?
We used Zoom to call and Padlet (youngsters, teenagers) to present activities and homework and to place additional materials for those who want to practice more. We communicated with parents via email; after every lesson, we summed up what we learned in an email.
What Palacký students gained from this experience?
Lenka Nosková, Project Coordinator IEI, Lead Instructor
I am a PhD candidate at Faculty of Education, and it has been wonderful experience to work with this team of Palacký volunteer students. Such smooth teamwork, mutual respect, support and appreciation made the lessons a very enjoyable weekend activity with friends.
Our Czech conversations with bilingual or trilingual children and teenagers is enriching in many ways. We focused not only on their language skills and how to help them grow, but also on them as people with specific interests and passions. Each lesson we have made notes about it and plan the lessons around the topics they like or might like. Thanks to this approach, I think the lessons were natural and pleasant for both sides, instructors and learners.
We started using an online platform Padlet where we can be in touch and react on our posts and completed tasks. This got our teaching to another level; our meetings are about teaching and learning, but also about sharing, evaluation and encouraging. Being a community within the team, we have built a community with our learners. It gives me a new perspective on teaching.
Luděk Žihlo, student instructor
I am studying teaching English and German therefore it was unique for me to teach Czech as a second language. I enjoyed our teamwork to a great extent, especially the friendly atmosphere when planning the lessons and the feedback afterwards. Preparing lesson plans and interaction with learners online was new experience for me. I am certain that it has helped me to develop several teaching skills. I liked that we created the content together with our learners, we were constantly asking them what they are interested to do, what topic we should cover. We saw their progress in their speaking skills very quickly. I am eager to become a mentor of Palacký student instructors next semester.
Lenka Měchurová, student instructor
Czech conversations have been enriching experience for me. I have learnt how to teach in tandem, how to prepare lessons for multi-level learners and how to work with online teaching tools. I love teaching Czech as a foreign language, these lessons were special in many ways. After first lessons it was clear we want to be somehow in touch with the children and teenagers even outside of the lessons. Therefore, we started giving homework, usually on a personal topic (What I like about the CR, what films I like to watch, etc.). Soon we started using Padlet as a good place to share. It turned out to be about teaching and building relationships. It pushed our work to another level for me. It is inspiring for me to do it, almost every lesson I learnt something new and interesting.
Johana Handlířová, student instructor
I was happy to do real teaching, I have not done my teaching practice yet. It was great to experience online teaching, thanks to that I learnt how to work with various teaching applications. It was good that we could arrange the content according to the learners’ interests and have immediate feedback from learners after the lesson. I have to say it was a great pleasure to work in this team. I was enjoying our cooperation in lessons, we helped each other out when it was needed. Having several lecturers in the lessons, we could enrich ourselves with different perspectives on a particular teaching situation. After each lesson we discussed it in a very friendly atmosphere, and I think that thanks to these discussions I have grown in thinking as a teacher.
Jana Odevzdaná, IEI Project Supervisor
Students were able to cope with several challenges which occurred during the lessons, e. g. different levels of language skills, shy children, non-working microphone. Students adjust the lessons to multi-level group and started using break-out rooms to work one-to-one. They also used good online platform to communicate with the learners even outside of the lessons.
I am happy students were enjoying the work together and learners were enjoying the lessons. It is obvious that students learnt a lot through this project, concerning developing new teaching skills, ability to work in a team and teach in tandems. They were able to give feedback to each other and learn by mistakes. What I see another benefit, is that spending time together deepen their relationships. They are very open to my feedback, trying to incorporate it into their work. They all are eager to learn how to be a good teacher.
Eva Janebová, IEI project initiator
Palacký students shared to have gained new skills and:
- co-teaching and co-planning lessons,
- student-centered teaching,
- inclusive and multi-level teaching,
- giving and receiving feedback,
- reflective thinking and observation skills,
- developing and maintaining friendly environment in which students and teachers both learn.
Besides gaining unique intercultural experience with American-Czech high school students, students found that teaching is also learning, and that is one of the most enriching and cultivating part of this project and why “everyone wants to do it again next semester”.
If you are interested in joining this activity, send an e-mail to lenka.noskova@upol.cz.